...All weapons were totally free, but one could pay SC for attachments, suit modifications, ability upgrades, vehicle enhancements, etc.? Serious question. I think I'd pay $1 + $1.50 + $2 + $5 for four tiers of ammo belt... maybe. At least $2.50 across each class except the engineer! Two extra mags is nice, and I could have spent those 250 certs per on something else.
Honestly I think SC should be only for superficial things (camo, fins, fancy looking helmets, etc...) and not for 'power' at all. Not even weapons - though the current cert prices are a little high for that.
I rather have cosmetics require SC while the players have to earn gameplay changing items on the same terms.
I personally would like to buy anything with SC. my life is busy, and I dont want to waste half of my social life endlessly grinding for Certs to upgrade my stuff. I'd gladly pour in whatever SC needed to get the stuff I want. AS LONG anything that is bought by SC is also bought with Certs. So one way or another, those who pay and those who play for free, will obtain the same stuff. Its just that those who pay, who most likely live a busy life and dont have much time to spare to sit infront of PS2 all day, will be able to enjoy the game for its fulled. Given, that they cash in the money. And those who play for free, Who have time to play for hours to hours to end, will eventually unlock all the stuff regardless. As long as stuff that impact the game balance is obtainable by SC is also obtainable with Certs, there is no such thing as Pay2Win. Its more like Pay To Enjoy The Game Without Wasting Countless Of Hours But Also Supporting The Game For The People Who Play For Free So They Can Keep Playing For Free. Or what they could do even better. Be able to Convert SC for Certs and Certs for SC.
I think we're a little too early on the cosmetics only train of thought. Ideally, there'd be a dozen options for each piece of armor (shin guards, thigh padding, wrist guards, shoulder pads, helmets, etc.) and we could customize the look of our soldier a piece at a time, outfits would especially love this, but I'm asking on a "what if" scenario using what we have in game now.
I think things are fine as they are. Any in-game attachments are earned only through effort rather than purchasing, the base stats of all weapons really aren't anything to give a SC purchaser an advantage.
I fully agree with Kam - I think the way that it is, is fine for me. I have quite a busy life aswell - evening school + work + social life; I don't have alot of time to grind that much for new weapons etc, so it's neat to be able to buy it with SC... To have every weapon for free is a bit too much imo - This is a free game after all, and SOE still needs to have some profit aswell if you want to keep the game running or monthly updates etc.
Anything is better than the current pricing model. They are doing what Tribes Ascend did: Release godly powerful weapons for really high prices. You either have to grind a week+ to get them or buy them outright with money. Pretty disgusting.
While that may be fine in the long term once everyone has the right tools, it's still indirectly P2W especially in the short term. For instance, two players play as HA. They both find that the default LMG is not quite fit for the longer ranges. One decides to pay up for a weapon for those ranges, while the other grinds for days. During that time, the paying player has a distinct gameplay advantage in terms of versatility. I do like the Cert-SC interchangeability concept but I doubt SOE would implement it.
Well, this is why I'm asking if people would prefer if weapons across the board were always available to everyone, but one could pay SC for certifications like scopes and nanoweave. I mean, it's probably too late now, I'm just curious about people's opinions, and I'm sure SOE is too.
Sure, the paying player has a advantage in versatility. but however, especially when it comes to Infantry weapons, The "improvements" are so marginal, it does not really have any effect. Good example is my Playstyle wich is Pistol + Knives. And the pistol is very limited for its upgrades. Yet for everything i invested for the pistol, wich is total of 600 certs, and the knife is already stock weapon. I'm able to kill quite a large number of players having much more certs into their class, using a 1000 cert weapon, with at least 260 certs worth of attachments. Some stock weapons arent half bad either, and you can perform very well with it, so even when you havent spendt a single cert, you can defeat people who certed max out their class. In theory, those who cert fully out, should have the advantage. but the practical world its quite different, especially when you put human skill into factor. And then you have numbers. While on paper a guy having a weapon doing double damage, and having double the HP should be able to fight 2 people with half his values in equal terms. This isn't the case when its actually happening. Most of the time, 2 people will simply win, just due to simple fact that he is outnumbered. However, you also got cases where 1 man will be able to kill 10 or even more people in a single go, and thats even without having upgraded anything on his weapons. There is just so many mis-matching factors for this case that nomatter how much upgrades and how many weapons you unlock. It will not guarantee you a Win. One can sit there with all his fancy tech and upgrades, but once he takes a bullet in his head, he is still dead. If the bullet came from a Pistol, Sniper, Super teched out assault rifle. Youre still dead. In a serius pay2win case that you see in some games, many games infact, the guy who payed for all his stuff, has such a advantage over others, that those who arent close to equal terms against him will stand very little to no chanse against him. But in this game, especially in infantry combat. That simply does not happen in practical terms. Half the time I get killed, I have no idea if he used upgraded weapons or not, so for me, it dosnt matter if he uses the most expensive weapon, or he just started the game. And then you have the number of people you face in the game. There is just a huge number of players out there and that you very often face against, that you have no idea what really kills you, and that 1 guy in the crowd of 20 to 30 people shooting at you, might have the most expensive stuff in the game happened to kill you, Dosn't really matter. After all, its 1 guy out of a crowd all shooting bullets heading your way wanting you dead. So that you got killed by a guy with upgrades or no upgrades really dosnt pay any matter when it comes to overall game balance. Vehicle weaponry might come in abit different approach. however, most vehicles comes out reasonably well as stock, aswell all major weapon change are currently buyable by certs. The only one that has the biggest changes on weaponry is the ESF's as A2A lock on or Rocket Pods makes a huge difference in its killing ability. But those are already buyable. But even so, They are not guarantee kill. Quite alot of times you will just simply be out-skilled by a guy who just quickly finishes you off with his rotary gun, and firing lock on missiles on him dosnt work well as he happens to dodge them quite well.
I'm pretty sure this game was not cheap to development, nor is it cheap to maintain. Considering the game client is free to download and play, they obviously need ways to pay for their costs, maintain and actually make a profit.This will not be possible at all with just selling fluff items like camo ect.
Yes it is. SOE doesn't make all its cash from weapons. SOE also offers monthly memberships and implants. Let me ask you this. If SOE needs to charge the exorbitant prices in the store, why do they offer 50% off bundles and daily deals? Answer: because even at 50% off SOE is still making money off the item. Also these games probably aren't that expensive to run in terms of servers. PS2 released with SOE's all access pass and still gives you $5 in SC every month.
